Amir Mohammad Nekounam wins Iran’s first gold of the championship

52nd ISSF World Championship All Events · Changwon, KOR

The young talented Rifle shooter climbed atop the 3 Positions podium in Changwon (KOR), adding a gold medal to the silver he previously won in the Air Rifle event. Hungary’s Zalan Pekler and People’s Republic of China’s Cao Bo completed the podium in 2nd and 3rd place, respectively.

At the 52nd ISSF World Championship in Changwon (KOR), Amir Mohammad Nekounam (20) of the Islamic Republic of Iran won the gold medal in the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Men Junior event. For the young Iranian shooter is the second medal of the competition, as he previously took silver in the 10m Air Rifle Men Junior event.

Nekounam battled fiercely with Hungary’s 18-year-old Zalan Pekler — holder of the highest qualification score with 1169 points and leader of the final at the end of the prone position — moving into the 1st place with two fantastic 5-shot series in the standing position and then maintaining the lead with five strong shots.

Nekounam’s final score of 455.5 points gave him the gold medal, while Pekler’s 455.0 delivered him the silver.

The bronze medal was awarded to People’s Republic of China’s 19-year-old Cao Bo — who made his World Cup debut at this year’s competition in Munich (GER) placing 28th in this event. Cao shot consistently above the 50.0-point mark, but failed to undermine the gold and silver medal positions, finishing in 3rd place with 442.9 points.

Missing the podium by 2.1 points at the moment of the elimination, first-time participant Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar of India signed off in 4th place with 431.7 points. 20-year-old Artem Filippov of the Russian Federation followed the Indian 17-year-old, failing to add a world championship medal to the silver he won at this year’s Junior World Cup in Suhl (GER).

Mostly because of two weak standing series of 46.5 and 47.8 points, Romania’s 20-year-old Dragomir Iordache left the match after shot number 41, placing 6th with 408.7 points.

At the end of the second standing series the two lowest-ranking athletes were eliminated from the final: 20-year-old first-time finalist Stefan Sulek of Slovakia took 8th place with 397.6 points, Matias Kiuru (20) of Finland — also a first-time finalist — took 7th with 398.7.

The People’s Republic of China took gold in the team event, scoring 3467 total points. The Chinese team was followed by the Russian Federation, who took silver with 3455, and Hungary, who won bronze with 3452 points.

The ISSF World Championship in Changwon (KOR) will continue tomorrow with three more finals: the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Women Junior, scheduled at 12:45 pm (UTC+9:00), the Skeet Men Junior, taking place at 2:45 pm, and the Skeet Women, scheduled at 4:00 pm.